Recently, arrived home from a late summer vacation to Turkey. Since I don't travel often to Middle Eastern countries, I brought my La Sardina and Diana F+ with me, along with 10 rolls of film! These are the photo I took from Heaven on Earth!

8 August – Day 1: Arrival, Camlica Hill, Belerbeyi Sarayi, and Bosphorus Strait Cruise
Arrived at 8.00 AM at Attaturk Airport, I went to the Camlica Hill after my family and I found the guide in the airport. The view from the hill was amazing! The trees and flowers were beautiful and the scenery was mind-blowing!

Arrival and Camlica Hill

After enjoying our time on Camlica Hill, we visited the Belerbeyi Sarayi which means Belerbeyi Palace. The palace is an amazing summer palace. But unfortunately, taking photos are forbidden inside the palace.

Belerbeyi Sarayi and the garden of Belerbeyi Sarayi

And then, we finished our first day in Turkey with a cruise along Bosphorus Strait. The cruise was 1 hour long so I was able to sleep for a few minutes.

Bosphorus Cruise

9 August – Day 2: Troy
On the second day, we visited Troy. To reach Troy from Istanbul, we must cross Marmara Sea with ferry. The trip was 30 minutes long, so I went to the upper deck and started shooting. But then in the middle of shooting session, I found out that my La Sardina was still on Bulb and I had almost finished the film. So I panicked out when I realized that I overexposed almost a whole roll of film…

Ferry to Troy

About 30 minutes after the ferry, we arrived at the archeological site of Ancient City of Troy. The city was (of course) ruined after the war, and had 9 different layers of architecture from 9 different eras. ?What amazed me was the Trojan horse. On the site is the re-designed version of the Trojan Horse which was not so great. The one that amazed me is the original design of the horse that was used in the making of the movie “Troy,” kept in the city center of Canakkale, a city near the site. But sadly I can’t load the photos from the Sardina to this article because of a few errors.

Troy ruins

1: The original design, 2: The re-designed version

10 August – Day 3: Ephesus
On the third day, we visited Ephesus. The city was awesome! The architecture is still standing strong and still blowing my mind! And also Ephesus had one of the biggest Odeons, (theaters) called the Grand Theater

Few photos of Ephesus

11 August – Day 4: Pamukkale
On the fourth day, we visited the White Terrace of Pamukkale and ruins of Hierapolis. The White Terrace was beautiful. It looks like a canyon, but it’s not. It’s a kind of hot spring and it’s white!

The White Terraces

12 August – Day 5: Konya, Cappadocia
On the fifth day, we went to Cappadocia. But since the trip took 9 hours, we stopped at Konya to visit Maulana Jalaludin Rumi Museum. And then we proceeded to Cappadocia and arrived at night.

Maulana Jalaludin Rumi Museum in Konya

13 August – Day 6: Cappadocia
We started our day with an air hot balloon ride around Cappadocia in the morning. It was really amazing to see it from above. We also saw the sunrise from 700m above the ground.

Balloon ride above Cappadocia

After that, we started our tour in Cappadocia and visited places like Goreme Open Air Museum, Imagination Valley, Mushroom Valley etc. The scenery was amazing and mind-blowing!

Cappadocia!

14 August – Day 7: Ankara, Bolu
On the seventh day, we went to Bolu and stopped at Ankara to visit Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, the Founder of Turkey Republic. The Mausoleum is really glorious and the architecture is awesome!

The Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Attaturk

15-18 August – Day 8-10: Istanbul Tour
We arrived at Istanbul on noon of 15 August, and the we started our tour around Istanbul for the next 2 1/2 days. We visited masterpieces like thenHippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Sarayi, Dolmobahce Sarayi, Taksim Square, and Galata Tower. Istanbul is really amazing!

The Masterpieces of Istanbul

Turkey is really amazing and beautiful. The food, the scenery, the people, everything is really great. Well that’s why I called it Heaven on Earth. And I believe if you have visited Turkey, you will say the same thing. Turkey is a gift from God. And because of that, I felt really sad upon leaving Turkey…

Here are all the photos I took of Turkey, but these are not all of them. If you want to see them all, you can see my album here

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